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Show TEXT OF PRESIDENT'S KANSAS CITY SPEECH IN DEFENSE OF PACT KANSAS CITY, Sept. 6. President Wilson, making Lis third address in Missouri for the peace treaty in Convention hall here today, said : I came back from Paris, bringing one of the greatest documents of human history. One of the things that made it great was that it was penetrated throughout with the principles to which America has devoted her life. Let me hasten to say that one of the most delightful circumstances of the work on the other side of the water was that I discovered that what we called American principles had penetrated to the heart and to the understanding, not only of the great peoples of Europe, but to the hearts and understandings of the great men who were representing the peoples of Europe. I think that I can say that one of the things that America has had most at heart throughout her existence has been that there should be substituted for the brutal processes of war the friendly processes of consultation and arbitration, and that is done in the covenant of the league of nations. I am very anxious that my fellow fel-low citizens should realize that that is the chief topic of the covenant of the league of nations, the greater part of Its provisions. War's Safeguards l Are Explained. The whole intent and purpose of the document are expressed in provisions by which all the member states agree that they will never g-o to war without first having done one or the other of two things, either submitted the matter In controversy con-troversy to arbitration, in which case they agree to abide by the verdict, or .submitting .sub-mitting It to discussion in the council of the league of nations, and for that purpose pur-pose they consent to allow six months for the discussion, and whether they like the opinion expressed or not, that they will not go to war for three months after that opinion has beeen expressed, so that you have, whether you get arbitration or not, nine months' discussion, and I want to remind you that that is the central principle prin-ciple of some thirtv treaties entered into between the United States of America and some thirty other sovereign nations, all of which are confirmed by the senate of the United States. We have such an agreement with France; we have such an agreement with Great Britain; we have such an agreement agree-ment with practically every great nation except Germany, which refused to enter into such an arrangement becaupe, my fellow citizens, Germany knew that she intended something that didn't bear discussion, dis-cussion, and that if she submitted the purpose which led to this war to so much as one month's discussion, she never would have dared go into the enterprise against mankind which she finally did go into (applause), and therefore, I say, that this principle of discussion is the principle already adopted by America. Boycott Potent t League Weapon. And what is the compulsion to do this?. The compulsion is this, that if any member mem-ber state violates that promise to submit either to arbitration or discussion, it is thereby ipso facto deemed to have committed com-mitted an act of war against all the rest. Then you will ask, do we at once take up arms and fight them? No. We do something very much more terrible than that. Wre absolutely boycott them. Let any merchant put up to himself, that If he enters into a covenant and then breaks it and the people all around absolutely desert his establishment and will have nothing to do with him, ask him after that if it will be necessary to send the police. The most terrible thing that can happen to any individual and the most conclusive thing that can happen to a nation is to be read out of decent society. (Applause.) There was another thing that we needed need-ed to accomplish that is accomplished in this document. We wanted disarmament, and this document provides In the only possible way for disarmament by common com-mon agreement. Observe, my fellow citizens, citi-zens, that just now every great fighting nation in the world is of this partnership partner-ship except Germany, and, inasmuch as Germany has accepted a limitation of her army to 100,000 men, I don't think for the time being she may be regarded as a great fighting nation. And you know, my fellow citizens, that armaments mean great standing armies and great stores of war material. They do not mean burdensome taxation merely; mere-ly; they do not mean merely compulsory military service, which saps the economic strength of the nation, but the'y mean the building up of a military class. Again and again, my fellow citizens, in the conference con-ference at Paris, we were face to face with this particular situation: Of dealing with a particular civil government we found that they would not dare to promise prom-ise what their general staff was not willing will-ing that they should promise; and that they were dominated by the military machine ma-chine which thev had created, nominally for their own defense, but really whether they willed it or not for the provocation of war. And so, as long as you have a military class. It does not make any difference dif-ference what your form of government is. If we are determined to be armed to the teeth, you must obey the orders and directions di-rections of the only men who can control con-trol the great machinery of war. It is not merely the cost of it (armament), although that is overwhelming but Jt Is , the spirit of It, and America has never , had, and I hope In the providence of God never will have, that spirit. (Great applause.) ap-plause.) And there Is no other way to dispense) with great armaments except by the com- j mon agreement of the fighting nations of the world. And here is tfie agreement. They promise disarmament, and promise to agree upon a plan. But there was something else we wanted that is accomplished accom-plished by this treaty. We wanted to destroy autocratic authority everywhere in the world. We wanted to see to i that there was no place in the world where a small group of men could use their fellow citizens as pawns In a game; that there was no place in the world where a small group of men, without consulting their fellow citizens, could send their fellow citizens to the battlefield and to death in accomplishing something dynastic, dy-nastic, some political plan that had been conceived in private, some object that ha-d been prepared for by universal, worldwide world-wide intrigue. That is what we wanted to accomplish. The most startling thing that developed itself at the opening of our participation in this war was not the military preparation of Germany we were familiar with that, though we had been dreaming that she would not use it but her political preparation; to find that every community in . the civilized world was penetrated by her intrigues. The German people did not know that, but it was known in Wilhelmstrasse, where the central offices of the German government govern-ment were, and Wilhelmstrasse was the master of the German people; and this war, my fellow citizens, has emancipated the German people as well as the rest of the world. We don't want to see anything like that done again, because we know that democracy will only have to destroy that form of government; and if we don't destroy de-stroy it now, the job is still to be done and by a combination of all the great fighting peoples of the world to see to It that the aggressive purposes of such government gov-ernment cannot be realized, you make it no longer worth while for little groups of men to contrive the downfall of civilization civiliza-tion in private conference. Scores Minority Rule. My fellow citizens, it does not make any difference what kind of a minority governs gov-erns you, if it is a minority. Arid the thing we must see to is that no minority anywhere masters the majority. That is at the heart, my fellow citizens, of the tragical things that are happening in that great country which we long to help and can find no way that is effective to help I mean the great realm of Russia. The men who are now measurably In control of the affairs of Russia represent nobody but themselves. They have again and again been challenged to call a constitutional constitu-tional convention. They have again and again been challenged to prove that they had some kind of a mandate even from a single class of their fellow citizens. And they dared not attempt it; they have no mandate from anybody. There are only thirty-four of them, I am told, and there were more than thirty-four men who used to control the destinies of Europe Eu-rope from Wilhelmstrasse. There is a closer monopoly of power in Petrograd and Moscow than there ever was in Berlin, and the thing that is Intolerable is not that the Russian people are having their way, but that another group of men more cruel than the czar himself is controlling the destinies of that great people. And I want to say here and now that I am against the control of any minority anywhere. any-where. Search your own economic history his-tory and what have you been uneasy about? Now and again you have said tliejp were small groups of capitalists who were controlling the industry and therefore there-fore the development of the United Stales. Seriously, my feilow citizens, if that is so (and I sometimes have feared that it was) we must break up that monopoly. I am not now saying that there is any group of our fellow citizens who are consciously con-sciously doing anything of the kind, and I am saying that these allegations must be proved. But if it is proved that any class, any group anywhere is without the suffrage of their fellow citizens in control of our affairs, then I am with you to destroy the power of that group. We have got to be frank with ourselves, however. If we do not want minority government in Germany, Ger-many, we must see to it that we do not have it in the United States. If you do not want little groups of selfish men to plot the future of Europe, we must not allow little groups of selfish men 'to plot the future of America. Any man that speaks for a class mrst prove that he also speaks for all his fellow citizens and for mankind; and then we will listen to him. Then there was another thing we wanted want-ed to do, my fellow citizens, that is done in this document. We wanted to see that helpless people were nowhere In the world put at the mercy of unscrupulous enemies and masters. There is one pitiful example exam-ple which is in the hearts of all of us. I mean the example of Armenia. There was a Christian people, helpless, at the mercy of a Turkish government which thought it the service of God to destroy Lhem. And at this moment, my fellow citizens, it is an open question whether the Armenian people will not while we sit here and debate de-bate be absolutely destroyed. When I think of words piled on words, of debate following debate, when these unspeakable things that cannot be handled until the debate is over, are happening in these pitiful piti-ful parts of the world, I wonder that men do not wake up to the moral responsibility responsi-bility of what they are doing. Great peoples peo-ples are driven out upon a desert, where there is no food and can be none, and they are compelled to die and then, men. , women and children, thrown Into a com- j mon grave, so Imperfectly covered up that here and there is a pitiful arm stretched out to heaven; and there Is no pity in the world. When shall we wake I to the moral responsibility of this great occasion? 'Nations Emancipated. And so, my fellow citizens, there are other aspects to that matter. Not all the populations that are having- something that is not a square deal live in Armenia. Ar-menia. There are others. And one of the glories of the great document which I brought back with me is this: That everywhere within the area of settlement covered by the political questions involved in that treaty, people of tha t sort have beeen given their freedom and guaranteed their freedom. But the thing does not end there, because the treaty includes the covenant of the league of nations. And what does that say? That says that it is the privilege of any member state to call attention to anything anywhere that Ts likely to disturb the peace of the world or the good understanding between nations upon which tiie peace of the world depends, de-pends, and every people in the world that have not got what they think they ought to have, is thereby given a world forum in which to bring the thing to the bar of mankind. There never before has been provided a world forum in which the legitimate grievances of peoples entitled to consideration consid-eration can be brought to the common judgment of mankind. And if I were the advocate of any suppressed or oppressed people, I surely could not ask any better forum than to stand up before the world and challenge the other party to make pood its excuses for not acting in that case. Alterations Ruinous. 1 To reject that treaty, to alter that treaty, is to impair one of the first charters char-ters of mankind. And yet there are men who approach the question with passion, j with private passion and party pulsion! who thinl-c only of some immediate advantage advan-tage to themselves or to a group of their fellow countrymen, and who look a; the 1 thing with the ja undiced eyes of those ! who have some private purpose of their own. I When at hut. n the annals of mankind they are gibbeted, they will regret that the gibbet is so high. I would yM have ynu think that I am trying to characterize those who conscien- tiously object to anything in this great document. I take off my hat in the pres- 1 ence of any man's genuine conscience, and there are men who are conscientiously conscientious-ly opposed to it, though they will pardon me if I say ignorant ly opposed. 1 have no quarrel with them. It has been a great pleasure to confer with some of them and to tell them as frankly as I would have told to my most intimate friend, the whole inside of my mind and every other mind that I knew anything about that had beeen concerned with the conduct of affairs at Paris, in order that they might understand this thing and go with the rest of us in the confirmation of what is necessary for the peace of the world. I have no intolerant spirit in the matter, but I also assure you that, from the bottom bot-tom of my heart to the top of my head, I have got a fighting spirit about it. Must Have Substitute. And hf anybody dares to defeat this great experiment, then he must gather together the counsellors of the world and do something better. Tf there is a better scheme. I for one will subscribe to it, but I want to say now, as 1 sa id the other night, it is a case of put up or shut up. Negation wiil not save the world. Opposition constructs nothing. Opposition is the specialty of those who are Rolshevistleally inclined. Again I assure you I am not comparing any of my respected colleagues to Bolshevists Bol-shevists : but T am merely pointing out tha t the Bolshevistic spirit lacks even element of constructive opposition. They have destroyed everything and they have proposed nothing. (Applause and cheers.) And while there is a common abhorrence abhor-rence for polit leal Bolshevism. 1 hope there will not be any such thing grow up in our country as in terna tion ;l1 Bolshevism, Bolshev-ism, the Bolshevism that destroys the constructive work of men who have conscientiously con-scientiously striven to cement the go"d i'eeiing of the great peoples of the world, j Is it not a great vision, my feilow citizens, citi-zens, tlvs of the thoughtful world combined com-bined for peace, and inis of all the gr'-at peoples of the world associated to see that h'sMc1 is done, that 'Ik- s;roiig who J int"1 wrong are restrained and mat the weak who cannot defend themselves are made secure? We have a problem ahead of us that ought to interest us in this connection. We have promised the people peo-ple of the Philippine islands that we will set them free. It has been one of our perplexities bow we should make them safe after we set them free. Under this I arrangement they will be safe from the outset. They will become members of the league of nations, and every great nation in the world will be obliged lo respect re-spect and preserve against ex tenia! agression ag-ression from any quarter the territorial Integrity and political independence of the Philippines. Tt simplifies one of I lie most perplexing problems that have faced the American public. Americanism's Triumph. j Bjt H does not simplify our problems j merely, gentlemen. It illustrates the tri- umphs of the American spirit. I do not j want to attempt any flight of fancy, but i I can fancy these men of the- firs; gen- j eration. that so thoughtfully sot this I great government up. the generation of I Washington, Hamilton. Jefferson and tli'1 Adamses I can fa ncy their looking on I with a sort of enraptured amazement that j the American spirit should have made utter conquest of the world. j If anything that I have said has If-ft the impression on .your mind that I have I the least doubt of the result, please dis- ! miss the impression. And if you" think j I have come out on this errand to light j anybody, please dismiss t ha t from your j mind. I have not come to tight or an- t tagonize any individual or body of indi- vidua" f. I have, let me say. without the j slightest affectation, the greatest r.pe't for the senate of the i'nited States; but, i my fallow cit izens. T have rome out to fight for a cause. That cause is Krea t --r j than the senate; it is gr.-atrr than thf government ; it is as great as the cause 1 of mankind, and I intend, in o f 1 1 r e o r 1 out, to right thai battle as long as I live. ' My ancestors were troubb-some S-'Ot .-h- ! men. and among them were some of that i'f.mous group th-it were known as : ne j I'overmn'f rs. Very wHl, there is t'lf rovenani of the leaiue of nation. I am J a covtnanier. |